Couscous Cake - Lemon and Blueberry

 
Couscous Cake Low Syn.jpg
 

There is never a dull moment with Slimming World, and the variety of food we can eat while staying on plan always inspires me. I saw a couscous cake while browsing on Pinterest recently and thought - this is a free food on slimming world, there must be a way to make this low syn! So, I've made a fresh and tasty version adding Lemon, Blueberry and Poppy Seeds and using low syn and free ingredients. Enjoy enjoy a few with a cuppa and still have syns left over for the day.
If you are dubious, worry not - sweet couscous is not what we are used to in the UK and Ireland but it's quite normal for some cultures. You'll soon be won over by the gorgeous aromas filling your house, it smells exactly like a blueberry muffin.
In terms of texture, I was pleasantly surprised - there is no graininess to it so long as it is cooked to the instructions and mixxed well with other ingredients. Definitely something I'll do again.

Note: Since this is not the intended use of couscous, it is considered a "tweak". To account for this we add a further syn per slice, bringing the syn value to 1.5 syns per slice.

8 Servings
Prep Time:
Cook Time:
Ready In:

Ingredients:

  • 100g couscous, cooked as per instructions
  • 3 medium eggs
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • Half tbsp poppy seeds (1 syn)
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • 3 tbsp sweetener (1.5 syns)
  • 2-3 tbsp Fat Free Greek Yoghurt/Quark
  • 100g Frozen Blueberries (2 syns)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 190 C.
  2. Cook the couscous as per instructions. Add lemon juice and leave to cool
  3. Whisk the eggs, and add the cinnamon, yoghurt and sweetener
  4. Add the poppy seeds and cooled cous cous and mix well
  5. Line a cake tray with parchment paper or spray with a non-fat cooking spray
  6. Pour gently into the tray, and place blueberries evenly into the mixture
  7. Cook for 25-30 minutes
  8. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before slicing into 8

A couple of tips:

  • Make sure the fruit is well frozen to retain its shape. Fresh fruit will spread a lot more!

  • You can mess around with flavourings, such as vanilla essence or nutmeg if you’re not a fan of cinnamon and lemon.

  • This mix works very well for muffins too.

  • The seeds are completely optional.

Have you tried any variation of the couscous cake? What should we try next? Let us know in the comments below, on Facebook or on Instagram!

The perfect summer sparkler - B Secco White and Rosé - 3 syns per glass

Breaking the pattern

I have to admit, this end of week sabotage has been a bit of a cycle for me - and I think I’ve finally found a way to break it. I recently had the opportunity to try Black Tower’s new offering - B Secco White and B Secco Rosé. At just 65 calories - this is a tiny 3 SYNS per glass. I’m thinking to myself — this has the potential to be a game changer.

As summer gets into a groove many of us feel the seasonal shift toward refreshing, fruity, fancy fizzy drinks of a Saturday evening. Typically this has us reaching for cider, wine or prosecco. Make one wrong move with our choices however, and our syns for the week are thrown off -- undoing all of the good work for the week. To put this into perspective, here are a couple of summer faves and their syn values:

  • Pint bottle of Original Bulmers: 12.5 syns (up to 16 for a flavoured version.)

  • Kopparberg Original / Pear (12/15 syns respectively)

  • Small glass of white wine: 6 syns

  • Glass of Rosé wine: 4.5 syns

The Taste Test

I fancy myself as a bit of a Connoisseur de Booze, sure I’ve been at this game for almost 20 years! So, quality is important - a sparkling drink needs a bit of complexity. I’ve tried other “low-calorie” offerings and this is where they fall short - there is often something lacking.

Myself and my pal Maria found the perfect occassion to try a glass of the B Secco Rosé. I had just “proposed” to her to be my bridesmaid, and we were having a little celebration with a few tines in my sunny back garden. We both enjoyed it immensely - it has that celebratory sparkling zing, gorgeous fruit flavour and it even tasted… expensive. We polished off the bottle happily-- by then I had only used 9 of my daily syns!

Availability / Cost

The clincher here is that at the time of writing, they are on sale in Tesco Ireland for a mere €5 for a bottle - normally €6.99. A little birdie told me that there are also two more offerings to be released soon in Tesco Ireland - B Fruitiful Strawberry and B Fruitiful Passionfruit - which will be only 55 calories (only 2.5 syns per glass)

So find an occasion and round up your pals, and enjoy this summery delight guilt free!

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